Microchips of the Dutch NXP and Nexperia companies arrive in Russia despite the sanctions.

The electronics of these manufacturers are used to make Russian weapons.

The NXP and Nexperia products were found in a Russian howitzer, a cruise missile, an attack helicopter, and a Shahed-136-type kamikaze drone.

Overall, according to the Royal United Services Institute (Royal United Service Institute for Defence and Security Studies), 10 of the 27 studied weapons systems of the Russian Federation had NXP chips.

Journalists from NOS and Nieuwsuur media got access to trade data and investigated how European technologies get to Russian manufacturers.

The investigation notes that there is a clear picture of how a small group of Chinese companies receive chips from the Netherlands and export them to Russia.

Besides, one of the companies that re-exports chips is included in the US sanctions list.

Manufacturers emphasize that they comply with the rules and sanctions and do not do business with Russia. Their customers also do not have the right to sell chips in the Russian Federation.

Both transnational corporations say they have no answer as to how the fraudulent brokers still manage to buy their products.

NXP clients are “carefully” checked. The company claims to go beyond legal obligations in compliance with sanctions. It is unclear what exactly this means and whether the company will take action against the group of Chinese intermediaries.

Nexperia insists that its export control team used the latest software “to monitor the distribution.” If the distributor violates the sanctions, the contract will be terminated. The company does not wish to disclose whether this happened last year. The bottom line is: reselling to third parties is something “we can’t always control or prevent.”

At the same time, journalists emphasize that companies must perform the so-called “homework” and prevent the re-export of goods to the Russian Federation.

Bypassing sanctions

The investigation emphasized that EU sanctions are being massively bypassed. For example, small companies ship chips to Russia by mail. Asian traders are also reselling products to Russia at high profitability.

According to investigators, the largest intermediary is the Chinese company Sinno Electronics, but unlike the United States, the EU has not imposed sanctions against it.

At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands noted that they do not make statements about specific companies not to interfere with the effect of surprise.

In addition, a company-specific sanction decision requires consensus in EU member states.

At the same time, experts believe that manufacturing companies could do more to limit re-export.

In December, Reuters and Important Stories journalists, along with the Royal United Services Institute experts uncovered a network of intermediaries implementing the requests of the Russian Federation for the necessary components.

It is noted that the flow of microchips to Russia, which are manufactured outside the Netherlands, is even greater.

Journalists cite information that the companies distributed at least 2 million chips in November. During the same period, NXP and Nexperia factories produced over 60,000 units, which is approximately 6% of the total.